Originally Posted by
mduell
The Europeans haven't really come around on the whole low-hassle experience we're used to in the US where you checkin online, head to the lounge via a series of priority lines, then straight to pre-boarding. Very attached to the sticker game and implementing it for the lowest common denominator pax without differentiated handling for different pax profiles.
I remember when Delta had a company called ICTS interview you at a European airport before being allowed to proceed to the counter to check in, and they would put a sticker on the back of your passport.
I didn't travel to Europe between mid-December, 2019 and early October, 2022. I have been on two trans-Atlantic trips since, one to AMS, the other to LHR. The ICTS agents, if they still exist, didn't come up to me at either airport as I went to check-in, and I did not receive a sticker at either place.
I've always thought the whole "exit visa" system to be a waste of time, but on one trip the crack Marechausee immigration police at AMS caught the guy in front of me for overstaying his visa by two days; they led him away to who knows where.